The starting point for Niklas Klotz's works was the re-materialisation of the 'digital' imprint of a human being. Photo: Courtesy Jens Fehring Gallery.

FRANKFURT AM MAIN.-Jens Fehring Gallery will be opening an exhibition entitled i'm so grouchy featuring works by sculptor Niklas Klotz (born in 1968), a native of Dresden, Germany. The exhibition will open at 7:00 p.m. with an introduction by Prof. Dr. Achim Preiß from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

In the not too distant future, it will only be possible to experience large chunks of our culture digitally. By contrast, Niklas Klotz takes the totally opposite approach. He designs digital humans on the computer only to then realise the matrices in traditional materials, such as marble and wood, although sometimes he also chooses high-tech solutions, such as 3-D aluminium prints. Socalled avatars (digital human personifications on the internet) are transformed into tangible contours fashioned from marble (coloured with wax and pigment), wood and glass eyes. Despite being given marked individual features, such as wrinkles, stubble and scars, the sculptures still seem essentially artificial although it is not possible to clearly assign the origins of these characteristics.

The starting point for Niklas Klotz's works was the re-materialisation of the 'digital' imprint of a human being. Together with the Institute for Production Technology at Dresden University, he took the data of the first person ever to be dissected into nearly 2000 layers  each just a few millimetres thick  and completely digitalized, made an aluminium cast of the same and brought it back to materiality. The dichotomy separating artificially generated content from the material presence of the same has been the focus of Klotz's interest ever since.

The current award-winning project to redesign the Julius Otto memorial in Dresden is a good example of the concept and method adopted by the artist. He designed a life-sized 3-D aluminium, low resolution print of a choir boy to enhance the existing monument, which was erected in the 19th century. In doing so, he embedded his own work straight into an art historical context, challenging the observer to perform a direct comparison.

The exhibition will be open for viewing from 05.03.2010 - 17.04.2010 at jens fehring gallery in Frankfurt/Sachsenhausen, Germany.